Normally I save the reviews for books and technology, but this time the event itself merits it.
I was admittedly skeptical about Blogger Social, the gathering of over 80 bloggers in New York City earlier this month. Living in New York and traveling to events around the country, I meet quite a few bloggers, social media mavens, Twitterers, Facebook junkies, YouTube c-list celebrities, podcasters, and others who clearly fall under the "creator" category of Forrester's technographics. I didn't really need another event to meet bloggers. Since there was a decent chance I was going to need to be out of town for at least part of the weekend, I just signed up for Saturday night rather than the entire weekend, hedging my bet.
Then the event happened, and the people who came were a different sort than I usually met at the events I went to. I'm not sure exactly how. I met Arun Rajagopal who came in from Oman. I met Todd Andrlik who once interviewed me, Jason Falls who blogged about my client, and Scott Monty whose client I blogged about. I caught up extensively with Rohit Bhargava, one of several authors in the room and who I never get to see since he's too good for search marketing events these days (umm, okay, so my job title says "emerging media" and I work for a digital marketing agency... but I can't get the search thing out of my blood).
There are way too many other reasons to name why the event was so wonderful, though I'm including the list of attendees in the extended entry. It was a very warm, welcoming, creative, loquacious, and ultimately tipsy crowd, making for a great time to forge or strengthen friendships.
There was a lot of talk about Blogger Social '09, namely if there will be one (the demand is clearly there) and where it will be, with a lot of buzz around holding it in Europe. Odds are I won't make it out there unless it happened to coincide with a business trip.
But whether it's at a Blogger Social, some other event, or just syncing up through dopplr, I do hope the conversations that started there continue.
Attendees of Blogger Social 08:
Susan Bird Tim Brunelle Katie Chatfield Matt Dickman Luc Debaisieux Gianandrea Facchini Mark Goren Gavin Heaton Sean Howard CK Valeria Maltoni Drew McLellan Doug Meacham Marilyn Pratt Steve Roesler Greg Verdino CB Whittemore Steve Woodruff Paul McEnany Ann Handley David Reich Tangerine Toad Kristin Gorski Mack Collier David Armano Ryan Barrett Lori Magno Tim McHale Gene DeWitt Mario Vellandi Arun Rajagopal Joseph Jaffe Rohit Bhargava Anna Farmery Marianne Richmond Thomas Clifford Lewis Green Geoff Livingston Kris Hoet Connie Reece CeCe Lee Toby Bloomberg Seni Thomas Darryl Ohrt Joe Kutchera Paul Dunay Marshall Sponder Chris Kieff Tara Anderson Jason Falls Paul Soldera Roberta Rosenberg Saul Colt Todd Andrlik Nathan Snell Ryan Karpeles Mike Sansone Jennifer Laycock Neil Vineberg Cam Beck Mike Arauz Matthew Bailey Heather Gorringe John Rosen Cathleen Rittereiser Tamar Weinberg Rita Perea Linda Sherman Matthew McDonald Kaitlyn Wilkins Terry Starbucker Jennifer Berk Jane Quigley John Wall Scott Monty Kevin Horne Virginia Miracle Amanda Gravel Susan Reynolds David Polinchock Shashi Bellamkonda Vahe Habeshian
